Russia launches dozens of drone strikes on Ukraine overnight

Russia launched dozens of drone strikes across Ukraine on the eve of a holiday celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Kyiv’s mayor said Russia had fired 60 Iranian-made kamikaze drones at Ukrainian targets, including 36 at the capital.

All drones had been shot down but debris hit apartments and other buildings, injuring at least five people in Kyiv.

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A food warehouse was also set on fire by a missile in the Black Sea city of Odesa, where officials reported three people were injured.

Air raid alerts blared over roughly two-thirds of Ukraine for hours, with local media saying explosions sounded in the southern region of Kherson and south-eastern Zaporizhzhia.

Meanwhile, Russian artillery shelling wounded eight people, including a nine-year-old boy, in two villages in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson on Monday, regional officials said.

Russia’s attack comes on the eve of its 9 May Victory Day holiday, celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany.

But in a symbolic break with Moscow, Ukraine has moved the holiday to 8 May – when Western countries celebrate Victory in Europe Day.

The difference in celebration dates is down to the German army’s 1945 surrender taking effect on 8 May in Berlin but 9 May in Moscow.

The overnight strikes are the largest drone swarm yet in a renewed Russian air campaign that began ten days ago.

Kyiv said Moscow was also making a final push to capture the eastern city of Bakhmut before the 9 May holiday.

“Recalling the heroism of millions of Ukrainians in that war against Nazism, we see the same heroism in the actions of our soldiers today,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who addressed the nation from a hilltop overlooking Kyiv.

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“Unfortunately, evil has returned. Just as evil rushed into our towns and villages then, so it does now. As it killed our people then, so it does now.

“And all the old evil that modern Russia is bringing back will be defeated, just as Nazism was defeated.”

Moscow is preparing for Tuesday’s Victory Day parade, the most important day in the calendar for Russia under Putin, who uses the 1945 Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany to justify his invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has curtailed some of the huge military celebrations, which Western countries say is down to security concerns and in part because Moscow has lost so much military hardware in a winter offensive in Ukraine that has seen the most intense ground combat in Europe since World War Two.

Russia foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that by changing the date, Mr Zelenskyy had betrayed the memory of Ukrainians who fought the Nazis.

“What is worse than an enemy? A traitor. That is Zelenskyy, the embodiment of Judas in the 21st century,” she said.

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